SEMINAR MATERIALS ON FILM ADAPTATION A Research presented to The Languages Department De La Salle University - Dasmariñas Dasmariñas, Cavite As Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Subject Communication Arts II Joselito Bonilla Yee Lam Chung Eleonor Malabanan Charina Margarita Fe Nola
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SEMINAR MATERIALS ON FILM ADAPTATION
A Research presented toThe Languages Department
De La Salle University - DasmariñasDasmariñas, Cavite
As Partial Fulfillmentof the Requirements for the Subject
Communication Arts II
Joselito BonillaYee Lam Chung
Eleonor MalabananCharina Margarita Fe Nola
October 2006
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
TITLE OF PAGE 1
CHAPTER
1. INTRODUCTION
Background Study 3
Objectives of the Study 5
Significance of the Study 5
Scope and Limitation 7
Methodology 8
Definition of Terms 9
1. DISCUSSION
Question number 1 10
3. CONCLUSION
Summary and Conclusion 28
Recommendation 29
BIBLIOGRAPHY 30
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Numerous films are adaptations of literary works. The process of
adaptation actually amalgamates the interpretation of the spectators and the art
of film itself. Most adaptations are films based on novels but also make use of
non-fiction works such as journalistic materials, comics, scripts, autobiographies,
stageplays and previous films. Adaptation has proven to be one of the most
widespread practices in the evolution of fundamental ideas and scripts ever since
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_adaptation).
Literature provides filmmakers with a rich source of materials for movies.
According to the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Encyclopedia of
Philippine Art, "film is a voracoius medium that feeds on material from traditional
literary forms and recent media products to create narratives with which to
mesmerize its audience". Dudley Andrews, a film critic and theorist, states that
literary works are the basis of more than half of all commercial films (Phillips,
1999).
Frequent sources of Filipino films are the different genres of literature
(plays, novels, poems, folk tales, legends) "capitalizing on the presumed
famliarity of the public with the events, characters and themes of these
traditional/popular narrative genres" (CCP Encyclopedia,1994). Some of the
influential elements that contribute to Philippine cinema are historical events in
According to Boggs and Petrie (2000), in understanding the process of
making a film out of a novel requires knowledge or insights on the importance of
point of view in both the film and the novel. "The point of view controls and
dictates the form and shape of a literary work and determines its emphasis, tone,
strengths and limitations". The novelist's capabilities and limitations depend on
the different literary viewpoints such as:
1) First Person Point of View. It involves a narrator who tells and describes
what is going on in the story as a character or direct participant in the novel.
God made a world out of his dreams, of magic mountains, ocean and streams…
Kasama ang paghingi ng paumanhin sa may-ari ng tula, hinihiram ko ito bilang prologo ng mahabang kuwento ko para pangatwiranan sa mga mambabasa ang mga tauhang nasasangkot: sina Julian Jr., na dahil unang anak ay itinuring ni Julian Sr. na ekstensiyon ng kanyang sarili kaya bilinyagan ng Julian sa panahon na ang usong pangalan ay mga Michael at Lawrence at iba pang pangalang kolonyal; Isagani, na bilang konsolasyon sa 'kin sa pagkabigo ko na maging babae naman ang pangalawa nami'y isinunod ni Julian sa pangalan ng paborito kong pinsan na namatay sa tungkulin bilang pulis; Emmanuel, na ibig sabihin daw ay tagapagligtas… Hey, ang tula sa itaas ay dinala sa 'kin ni Julian – at kuntodo naka-mount sa pelus, ha! – nang ipanaganak ko si Emmanuel, para ipaliwanag kung bakit puro lalaki ang ginagawa sa 'min ng Diyos, bagama't matay ko mang pag-isipan, hindi ang Diyos ang gumawa kay Emmanuel kundi kami!
-Opening paragraph of "Dekada'70"
By Lualhati Bautista
Yes sir. Flem Snope has filled the whole country full of spotted horses. You can hear folks running back and forth across them little wooden bridges ever now and then kind of like thunder. Here I was this pretty near halfway tp town, with a team ambling along and me setting in the buckboard about half asleep, when all of a sudden something come swurging up oaten the bushes and jumped the road clean, without touching a hoof to it. It flew right over my team big as a billboard and flying through the air like a hawk. It taken me thirty minutes to stop my team and untangle the harness and the buckbosrd and hitch them u again. -opening paragraph of "Spotted horses"
By William Faulkner (as cited in Boggs and Petrie, 2000)
2) Third Person Omniscient Point of View. The narrator here does not have a
direct contact with the characters but she/he knows everything that happens to
them and can shift to different places if the story demands.
Sa simula, siya'y isang kalansay na nakatalalan sa hangin. Isang matayog, buhaghag na buton ng patapong mga piraso ng tabling gato, mabukbok, matibak, masalusob, pilipit, kubikong, na pinagpaku-pako nang patayo, pahalang, patulibas, kabit-kabit nang waang wawa, tulad ng kahig-manok sa lupa, at dito'y sisingit ang mga tadyang na bakal aat mga yero at mga playwud at mga lawanit upang salihin ang buhos ng labusaw na halo ng tubig', graba, buhangin at semento, at titigib sa hulmahan, matutuyo, titigas, yayakap saz mga taadyang na bakal at sa mga bitukang tubo. Bawat buhos ng malabasang sangkap ay kragdagang laman ng kaniyang katawan, karagdagang guhit satututnguhin anyo. Unti-unting mapapalis ang mga kalansay na kahoy, kasabay ng unti-unting paglapad at pagtaas ng katawang konkreto. Kikinisin siya, dadamitan ng salamin, tisa, marmol at pormika, hihilamusan ng kulay upang umalindog ang kaniyang balat. At sa kaniyang ganap na pagkaluwalay bibinyagan siya, at ang pangalan niya'y uukiut sa tanso. Sa simula, siya'y isang kalansay na knakatalalan sa hangin. Payayamanin siya, maglalaman at lulusog sa dilig na pawis at dugo. At siya'y magtatayo ng buong tatag , lakas at tibay, paghuhumindig aat nagtututmayogsa kapangyarihan, samantalang sa kanyang paanan ay naroon at lugmok, lupaypay, sugatan, duguan,nagtingala sa kanyang kataasan, ang mga nagpapala sa kanya.
-Opening paragraph of "SA MGA KUKO NG LIWANAG"By: Edgardo M. Reyes
There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with al the advantages, yet she had no luck,. She married for love, and the love turned to dust. She had bonny childrenyet she felt they had been thrust open her, and she could not love them. They looked at her coldly, as if they were finding fault with her. And hurriedky she felt she nust must cover up si=ome fault with her. Yet what it was that she must cover up she never knew. Nevertheless, when her children were present, she always felt she always felt the center of her heart go hard. This troumbled her, snd in her manner she was all the more gentle and anxious for her children, as if she loved them very much. Only she could not feel love, no not for anybody. Everybody else said of her: "she is such a good mother. She adores her children." Only she herself, and her children themselves, knew it was not so. They read it in each other's eyes.
-opening paragraph of "The Rocking-Horse Winner,"By D. H. Lawrence
(as cited in Boggs and Petrie, 2000)
3) Third Person Limited Point of View. Same as with the third person omniscient
point of view, the narrator is all-knowing but concentrates only to one character.
Although Bertha Young was thirty she still has moments like this when she wanted to run instead of walk, to take dancing steps on and off the pavement, to bowl a hoop, to throw
something up in the air and catch it again, or to stand still and laugh at nothing—at nothing, simply.
What can you do if you are thirty and, turning the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly, by a feeling of bliss---absolute bliss!—we though you'd suddenly swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon sun and it burned in your bosom, sending out a little shower of sparks into every finger and toe?.....
-opening paragraph of "Bliss"By Katherine Mansfield
(as cited in Boggs and Petrie, 2000)
4) Dramatic or Objective Point of View. It is also called as concealed, or effaced,
narrator point of view wherein the narrator's presence in the scene is not obvious
but actually tells the account of the story as well as the dialogue of the characters
which creates an impact of intimacy between audience and the scene.
The door of Henry's lunchroom opened and two men came in. They sat down at
the counter.
"What's yours?" George asked them. "I don't know," one of the men said. "What do you want to eat, Al?" "I don't know," said Al. "I don't know what I want to eat;" Outside it was getting dark. The street lights came on outside the window. The two men at the counter read the menu. From the other end of the counter Nick Adams watched them. He has been talking to George when they came in. "Ill have roast pork tenderloin with apple sauce and mashed potatoes," the first man said. "It isn't ready yet." "What the hell do you put on the cart for?" "That's dinner," George explained." You can get that at six o'clock." George looked at the clock on the wall behind the counter. "It's five o'clock." "The clock says twenty minutes past five," the second man said. "It's twenty minutes fast." "Oh, to hell with the clock," The first man said. "What have you got to eat?"
-opening paragraph of "The Killers"By Ernest Hemingway
(as cited in Boggs and Petrie, 2000)
5) Stream of Consciousness or Interior Monologue. In this viewpoint, the third
person and first person are combined wherein the narrator involves a "unique
land of inner view" in which what the character is thinking and imagining is being
narrated without selecting and organizing the thoughts beforehand.
Stay mad. My shirt was getting wet and my hair. Across the roof hearing the roof loud now I could see Nathalie going through the garden among the rain. Get wet I hope you catch pneumonia go on home Cowface. I jumped hard as I could into the bog-wallow the mud yellowed up to my waist stinking I kept on plunging until I fell down and rolled over in it. "Hear them in swimming, sister? I wouldn't mind doing that myself." If I had time. When I have time. I could hear my watch. Mud was warmer than the rain it smelled awful. She had her back turned I went around in front of her. You know what I was doing? She turned her back I went around in front of her the rain creeping into the mud flatting her bodice through her dress is smelled horrible. I was bugging her that's what I was doing. She turned her back I went around in front of her. I was bugging her I tell you. I don't give a damn what you were doing…"
-from The Sound and the FuryBy William Faulker
(as cited in Boggs and Petrie, 2000)
Among the literary viewpoints, only dramatic point of view, which is rarely
used by the novelist, has the cinematic potential. The rest are hard to translate
into film since the presence or even a "sense" of narrator well as the emphasis
on reflection, views contemplation of characters difficult to present in the film
(Boggs and Petrie, 2000)
In this sense the film makers do not use the novelistic point of view as
well as the passages containing the inner view of the characters instead they
emphasize more on the dramatic scene (Boggs and Petrie, 2000).
In film, the third person or first person point of view is usually employed.
Although the third-person viewpoint is preferred by the filmmakers, there are
times that a character’s literal point of view is presented. This is called as
subjective shot or point of view shot which is made possible by the use of camera
since it presents through its lens literally, what the character sees. In making a
film, “there are usually many cameras, shooting thousands of different shots from
many different angles of vision” which is the cinematic way of telling the story that
produces different points of view.
Aside from the subjective shots, the first-person point of view is also
portrayed “through performance, production design, lighting, color, editing, the
use of sound and camera…Taken together, these elements of structure help
create the cinema’s distinctive form of explicit third-person narration with implied
first-person components” (Prince, 1996).
Length and Depth
A film is limited in the aspects of length and depth as well as the amount
of material, thus, it is "forced to suggest pictorially a great many things that a
novel can explore in more depth".
In adapting a novel to a film, the filmmaker must decide if s/he will only
include a specific part of a novel or to "capture a sense of the whole novel by
hitting the high points."
The limitation pertains to the qualities of the characters as well as the
amount of numbers treated. In general, shorter novels are more adaptable to film
than long ones with ones with complex subplots.
While there are numerous procedures in which a film can be produced
from a novel, major considerations are time and space. (Fell 1975) stated that
"the main-stream tradition of storytelling by way of the written word from the
eighteenth century into the first part of the twentieth… has been what movie
animators call straight-ahead… the story will progress chronologically in time
from point A to point B…"
Problems created by the viewers
Making a film adaptation actually requires more skill than producing an
original script, especially when the material is more celebrated in nature. Thus,
many films are made from average sources, "for few people will get upset at the
modifications required in film if the source itself isn't of the highest caliber"
(Giannetti, 1982).
The "spectatorial experience" (Hill and Gibson, 2000) of an adapted film is
delermined by the stabdard the audience set to measure the film based on
his/her experience while reading rhe novel.
However, people are not aware of their "degree of selectivity" wherein
they give special emphasis and importance to some "visual image and
impressive bits of dialogue" while discard the others which they so not like.
Itence, this preconceived ideas and image of the story affect their level of
satisfaction of the film counterpart (Boggs and Petrie, 2000).
The connection which the film establishes with the audience is
emphasized as the story aims to tie up loose ends as it runs its course from the
exposition to the culmination of the film. Many films in the current generation
have the inclination to finish obscurely in which case the frame freezes and the
motion dies away but the film remains in a "technological semblance of
permanence" (Fell, 1975).
Chapter 3
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
SUMMARY
In this study entitled "Seminar Materials on Film adaption," the
researchers aimed to prepare instructional materials regarding the fundamental
considerations on adapting a novel to a film. Specifically, the researchers
intended to achieve the following objectives:
1. to discuss the fundamental considerations in adapting a novel to a
film
2. to prepare instructional materials discussing film adaptation of
novels
The research design that was used in this study is the descriptive research
method wherein the gathered and analyzed the information obtained from
various sources in order to come up with a description and discussion of the
things being taken into account in turning a novel into a film. The research
findings are the following:
1. Not all novels are adaptable to films, which is affected by the
commercial considerations of the filmmaker/ producer and the cinematic potential
of the novel or the writing style of the novelist.
2. The audience creates problems in their own enjoyment of watching an
adapted movie due to their preconceived images and expectations from what
they read in the original novel.
3. Changes occur in transforming a novel to a film due to changes in
creative talents (novelist, screenwriter, director, and producer) and/or changes
in medium (novel and film).
4. A screenwriter takes several things into consideration in adapting a
novel to a film such as length, depth, point of view, time, and use of inner view of
the characters in the novel.
CONCLUSIONS
Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were drawn:
1. It is difficult to adapt a novel to a film since there are many things to
consider in the process of adaptation.
2. In adapting a novel to film, the screenwriter must not aim to duplicate
literally the original novel because it is impossible, instead, s/he should
focus on getting the "spirit" of the novel as the basis of the new story in
the film version.
3. Knowledge in film adaptation is not only necessary on films
professional and film student but also to film enthusiasts since it will
help them to understand and appreciate the adapted movie.
RECOMMENDATION
After drawing the conclusions of the study, the researchers hereby make
the following suggestions/recommendations:
1. In analyzing a movie based on a novel, it is better that one has an insight
into the changes that happen in adaptation and an understanding that novels
and films are two different media which have their own strengths and
weaknesses so that the viewer would have a proper frame of mind in
approaching the two.
2. Make a more intensive study regarding film adaptation and its development
within the local industry in order to augment the system that already exists in
behalf of the Filipino talent.
3. Design a research on possible future innovations in the process and cite
possible locally-crafted novels that could be plausible sources for future films
to be based upon; and
4. Research on other modes of preparing instructional materials that could be
useful for seminars or lectures on the aforesaid process of adapting a novel
into a film.
References
A. Book Blum, R. A. (1995). Television and screenwrting: From concept to concept. (3rd ed). Focal Press Boggs, J.M. and Petrie, D.W. (2000). The Art of Watching Films (5th ed). Mountain View , California: Mayfield Publishing Company Cultural Center of the Philippines. (1994) CCP ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILIPPINE ART (Volume 8, pp 68-75) Manila: Vera-Reyes, Inc. Fell, J. L. (1975). Film an introduction. U
SA: Praeger Publishers, Inc. Frensham, R. (Eds.).(2003). TReach Yourself: ies. (3rd ed.) New Jersey : Prentice-Hall., 32-39. Giannetti, L. (1982). Understanding movies. (3rd ed.).
New Jersey : Prentice-Hall. Phillips, W. H. (1999). Film an introduction.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 203.
Prince, S. R. (1996). Movies and Meaning : An Introduction to Film.
Paramus, NJ, U.S.A.: Prentice Hall PTR,
B. Electronic Media General Elements of film adaptation. Retrieved July 8, 2006 from the World Wide Web from http://www.uv.cc.va.us/home/bpool/dog wood/general.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_adaptation http://www.nv.cc.va.us/home/bpool/dogwood/general/genre.html http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/learningresources/fic_adaptation.html http://www.redorbit.com/modules/news/tools.php?tool=print&id=6467
http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exbrapri.html http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/jsp/db/facts.jsp?title=Film 1994 (Principles of Adaptation for Film and Television) University of Texas Press Ben Brady